As Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she's not only considering what humor to deliver. She also carefully considers what subjects to avoid. “I don't engage in openly attacking the government,” she stated. And when she does, she makes certain it isn't recorded for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I openly disparage the government … I think this is a habit acquired back home.”
The comedian, thirty-nine, resided in the Chinese metropolis for nearly a decade, departing in 2022. By 2025, she moved to the US. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “overindulging on freedom,” going to talks, protests, and exploring New York’s public library.
However over the past year since the president returned to office for the second time, there has been a “palpable change” in the environment, she notes. “Back home, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears reflect an emerging political reality in the US which many Chinese, or those who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Enemies are ostracised. The leader expects total allegiance. Journalists face scrutiny. Institutions come under fire.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of hope in America that improved relations with the East may help the growing nation become more open, under Trump 2.0, it seems as if the US is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“America is experiencing an era of societal upheaval,” said Zhang Qianfan, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is attempting to rally the grassroots in order to sideline or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Since Trump unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy early on of his term, numerous Chinese observers see US politics via the perspective of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of young people to execute presidential directives, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump from a Chinese viewpoint has delivered disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, though without equivalent degrees of force.
However after the turmoil of the early months of the new administration subsided, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways seems familiar to many Chinese people.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, now a CCP dissenter, ended up in a controversy recently, the likes of which he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng resided in the US since 2019, after escaping the country due to pressure from officials.
In September, following the passing of Charlie Kirk, he posted that Kirk was a “scumbag”. Like people nationwide – who lost their jobs for expressing criticism regarding him – he encountered a huge backlash. Relatives was doxed and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“That event surprised me deeply. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in America – what typically happens in an authoritarian country,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the state, but such of social surveillance bears similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and monitoring open discourse on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge here,” said Maria Repnikova, a scholar at a US university. “This is that you see in the East today as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of students reporting on educators, a form of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, explained that progressive thinkers like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, in part because public debate on internal affairs in China is risky. But now, “America isn't some kind of god for progressive Chinese. The US's reputation has worsened generally.”
“We used to see the US as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, that guide appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, at least in private, skeptical about China’s political system, are increasingly finding it less objectionable than the US's, he stated. “It’s sort of painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The Trump administration’s acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the line between government and business is often blurred.
On Monday, authorities stated it would become an investor in a new company focused on mineral refinement, after taking similar stakes in additional firms deemed essential for national security. These moves have left certain stakeholders nervous that the US is entering a new era of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still significant distinctions between Trump’s America and China. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised news. US courts have blocked or reversed many of presidential measures, an action that would be unthinkable in China’s CCP-controlled judiciary.
An analyst, who established of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than it is now, and it would remain more free, open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that while numerous scholars in China were surprised to see US universities capitulate to government demands regarding DEI policies and open discourse on campus, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned by default. Administrators, which are selected by the state, “cannot of saying no. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Nevertheless, people in the US are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. An academic at a US university once vocal on bilateral matters declined to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
